Can Maine Enforce Quarantine for Ebola Nurse?
BU School of Public Health expert tells MSNBC that case questions limits of state power
Wendy Mariner, a professor of heath law, bioethics, and human rights at Boston University’s School of Public Health, appeared on MSNBC on October 30, 2014, to discuss the legalities involved in the state of Maine’s efforts to enforce a 21-day quarantine against Kaci Hickox, a nurse who cared for Ebola patients in Sierra Leone and has so far shown no symptoms of the disease. Mariner, who is also a professor of socio-medical sciences and community medicine at BU’s School of Medicine, says the case raises the larger question of the limits of state power to confine someone. While states generally have the power to confine people who pose a direct public health threat, Mariner says the Constitution limits how and when states can restrict people’s freedom in this way.